United States v. Extreme Associates , F. Extreme Associates , a pornography company owned by Rob Zicari and his wife Lizzy Borden also known as Janet Romano , was prosecuted by the federal government for alleged distribution of obscenity across state lines.
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One of the confiscated movies, Forced Entry, features three graphic scenes of women being spat upon, raped and murdered. Extreme Teens 24 has adult women dressed up and acting like little girls in various hard-core pornographic scenes. We can't even tell you the title of one of the films. Most Americans would probably find the content of the films disgusting. Zicari doesn't disagree — but he says to each his own. We make movies. That's it. Buchanan is the lead prosecutor on the case against Zacari. So jurors in Pittsburgh will have to decide if Zicari's movies fit the legal definition of obscenity. The nature of Extreme Associates' movies makes it an ideal target for Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department's opening salvo in its long-anticipated war on obscenity.
In what could be a crushing blow to his administration's stated goal of ramping up prosecutions of those who traffic in extreme pornography, a federal judge declared the government's anti-obscenity laws unconstitutional. With an emphasis on the Supreme Court decision striking down Texas' laws against homosexual sodomy, U. District Judge Gary Lancaster of western Pennsylvania ruled Thursday that "the government can no longer rely on the advancement of a moral code, i. This could severely complicate the plans of Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales, who recently informed the Senate that if confirmed as attorney general, he intends "to make the investigation and prosecution of obscenity one of my highest criminal enforcement priorities. I've got two young sons, and it really bothers me about how easy it is to have access to pornography. Lancaster dismissed obscenity charges this past week in the federal government's first major prosecution for obscenity in more than a decade, the United States of America vs.
The Justice Department on Thursday charged a North Hollywood wholesaler of adult films with violating federal obscenity laws, launching the first of what it promised would be a wave of criminal cases against purveyors of pornography. John Ashcroft promised upon taking office that he would crack down on the distributors of adult entertainment material such as movies, magazines and Web sites, much as his Reagan administration predecessor Edwin Meese III did in the s. Executives at Extreme Associates did not return calls Thursday, but one industry official said adult entertainment businesses were preparing for a fight. Postal Inspection Service set up a sting operation in Pennsylvania. From September through July , the indictment says, the defendants sold allegedly obscene material over the Internet and distributed videotapes and DVDs across state lines through the postal system, a violation of federal law. The sting came in conjunction with an obscenity investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department as well as complaints sent to the Justice Department in western Pennsylvania, said U. Mary Beth Buchanan.
